Cities to submit bid plans

Candidates to be narrowed to 10 after initial applications

Last updated: 27th November 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

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Fifteen cities are to submit their applications to become host venues for England's 2018 World Cup bid on Thursday.

The cities, which contain 21 stadiums, will be narrowed down to 10 and the stadiums from 12 to 18 on December 16 to form part of England's candidate file to be submitted to Fifa in May.

Fifa's vote on the World Cup hosts takes place in early December 2010.

The bids from Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield are expected to be for two stadia in the city, and London's for four including the 2012 Olympic Stadium.

It is expected to be named along with Wembley, Arsenal's Emirates Stadium and Tottenham's new White Hart Lane - but only subject to its final capacity meeting Fifa's requirements of a minimum of 40,000 seats.

London 2012's plan has always been to reduce the Olympic Stadium to 25,000 seats after the Games and keep it as a national venue for elite athletics.

That has provoked a fierce debate about the stadium being a potential drain on council tax-payers in the capital, and London mayor Boris Johnson is keen for a football or rugby club to ease the burden by making the stadium their permanent home.

The Olympic Stadium's inclusion as a potential World Cup venue would however be subject to the ground having another long-term sporting use.

Confident

Even if the stadium is eventually rejected, it would be used in any World Cup as a training facility with the Olympic Park as a huge fan-park.

Portsmouth pulled out of the running on Wednesday - the city council refused to provide the necessary financial guarantees to Fratton Park fearing it was too much of a risk.

The club had put forward a plan to redevelop the ground to a 37,000-seat stadium, with additional temporary seats to bring capacity up to more than 40,000.

An England 2018 spokesman expressed sadness and surprise at the decision but said bid leaders were confident of a strong array of potential host cities.

The spokesman said: "Naturally, we are disappointed at Portsmouth's withdrawal from the process. Along with the other cities involved, Portsmouth had shown great enthusiasm for the project and the council's decision not to approve their application at this stage is a surprising and sad outcome.

"The host city process still has an extremely strong candidate list and we are confident we have an array of cities, stadiums and general facilities that will support an exceptional bid to Fifa next May."

The hopeful cities expected to submit their applications are Birmingham, Bristol, Derby, Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Newcastle-Gateshead, Nottingham, Plymouth, Sheffield and Sunderland.

Comments (2)

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Ian Campbell (Newcastle United fan) says...

I subscribe to Fox sports in Australia, I have since the inception of pay TV in OZ, I am a Toon supporter in exile, but I would most certainly come back to St James' Park if they where to host some of the World cup qualifiers. Kind regards. Ian Campbell

Posted 11:15 26th November 2009

Colin Stevens (Brighton and Hove Albion fan) says...

Am I the only person who thinks that some of our stadiums will be laughed at by the rest of the world who have staged world cups at state of the art venues? I accept that Wembley, The Emirates, Old Trafford and Tottenham's proposed new stadium are 1st class. Some of the rest mentioned (e.g. Hillsborough, Brammell Lane, Elland Road) are old grounds that would need virtuall total rebuilding. Unless that's the plan, I can't see England's bid being successful.

Posted 10:29 26th November 2009
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